rigorousintuition.ca

SkyNet Lives

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:42 pm

by FourthBase

If the audio link works, please listen to the first Wilkinson-led discussion, parts 1 and 2 of "And What About Noodle?" It may stun even you, RI member, that such a discussion was held in the spring of little old 1964. Not just anywhere, either, but at probably the world's premier (and also least rankly-establishment) thinktank of its time. Wilkinson was a very endearing fellow, a brilliant and often witty man, with an incongruously-thick New Yorker accent.

(At the risk of seeming like some kind of anti-chameleon Zelig character, I also have a heartbreaking personal connection to Wilkinson. For a lowly Southie punk, I sure do get around. Another story for another day, someday.)

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:02 am

by FourthBase

FourthBase wrote: (At the risk of seeming like some kind of anti-chameleon Zelig character, I also have a heartbreaking personal connection to Wilkinson. For a lowly Southie punk, I sure do get around. Another story for another day, someday.)

In preparation for any unanonymity that might ensue in the near future, I'll just say what the connection is. In the fall of 2010, in the midst of epic solitude and grim drama, I fell in love with online, drove cross-country to be with, and lived with for a month, his brilliant, kind-hearted daughter. It was paradise, for two weeks. Then, disillusion and reality set in, and then hearts were broken. Then, I wound up flying back to Boston, tail between my white-trash legs.

(There's a post by Canadian_watcher in the Last Psychiatrist thread that somewhat relates to what went wrong. Except, if anything, it was a two-way street, but maybe with heavier traffic on one side than the other, with me doing double-duty, performing the roles of both the asshole and the damaged impending-disaster goods. I'm not a proud man. But I am honest. To a fault.)

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:00 pm

by MayDay

http://edge.org/response-detail/23784Bruce Sterling Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America"The Singularity": There's No There ThereSince it's 2013, twenty years have passed since Vernor Vinge wrote his remarkably interesting essay about "the Singularity."This aging sci-fi notion has lost its conceptual teeth. Plus, its chief evangelist, visionary Ray Kurzweil, just got a straightengineering job with Google. Despite its weird fondness for AR goggles and self-driving cars, Google is not going to finance anyeschatological cataclysm in which superhuman intelligence abruptly ends the human era. Google is a firmly commercialenterprise.It's just not happening. All the symptoms are absent. Computer hardware is not accelerating on any exponential runway beyondall hope of control. We're no closer to "self-aware" machines than we were in the remote 1960s. Modern wireless devices in amodern Cloud are an entirely different cyber-paradigm than imaginary 1990s "minds on nonbiological substrates" that mightallegedly have the "computational power of a human brain." A Singularity has no business model, no major power group in oursociety is interested in provoking one, nobody who matters sees any reason to create one, there's no there there.So, as a Pope once remarked, "Be not afraid." We're getting what Vinge predicted would happen without a Singularity, which is"a glut of technical riches never properly absorbed." There's all kinds of mayhem in that junkyard, but the AI Rapture isn'tlurking in there. It's no more to be fretted about than a landing of Martian tripods

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:17 pm

by elfismiles

He may be right. I've always liked Sterling ... but I've also always found him to be an arrogant asshole.

EDIT: I'm finding myself to be a tremendous asshole as well today, so ... apologies and stuff.

* The Desensitization of Children to Killing Via First-Person-Shooter Games * The of Humanity to Remote-Controlled-Killing* Israel's Military-Industrial-Murder-Complex* SkyNet Autonomous Killing Machines

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 9:44 pm

by DrEvil

Those protesters are a bit misguided. The woman was complaining about being evicted after a Google employee bought the building she lived in. How is that his employers fault?And the guy shouting about killer robots probably missed the part where Google explicitly said they would take no more military contracts, only finish those already in progress (which is basically a glorified and extremely noisy mule).

It's like Google is turning into the Rockefellers of IT conspiracy theories.

Re: SkyNet Lives

Forget the hype surrounding the social web for a moment, what about something a little further out? This talk will paint a picture of two possible futures, along the way asking the audience to help decide in 2012 if either has a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a reality. Choose between:

1. Brands and users operate in a future-perfect environment of algorithm-driven, sublime relevance, where no nanobyte of data is wasted. Brands display artificial intelligence - becoming, in effect, self-aware - able to determine without human intervention how best to serve their customers. This leads to a glorious future of zero spam and delightful indolence amongst humanity as AI machines do all the work.. for now.

OR

2. Brands and their users seek to fight for discovery and serendipity. Attempting at every juncture to circumvent the algorithmic tramlines laid down for their own good. Co-creating an open web with benevolent, politically neutral technology partners and real-world spaces where tech simply does not penetrate, this is the Wild West, 2050.Listen

Presenters11812Mel Exon Founder BBH Labs

Mel Exon is co-founder and Managing Partner of BBH Labs, Bartle Bogle Hegarty's global innovation unit. BBH is an independently owned, global creative ad agency with six regional hubs worldwide. BBH Labs is the agency's outwardly-focused, technology-driven innovation arm focused on ensuring the company is as smart as possible when it comes to change and the embracing of emerging platforms, processes and partners. She writes about this and more at http://bbh-labs.com and tweets @bbhlabs and @melex.

Mel is a shareholder of BBH and has been a partner of the company since 2001.48481Tom Uglow Creative Lead, Google Creative Lab Google Inc

Tom Uglow leads Google's Creative Lab in Asia, working on new ideas and global brand projects for Google, Android and YouTube. This includes launches for Chrome, Maps, Mobile, Google+ and campaigns such as Art Project, Life in a Day, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Space Lab, StreetView, and more... He tweets as @tomux, writes two blogs, has appeared on the BBC's Culture Show, is a member of the D&AD exec, the European Internet Week Council, and has judged, presented, and enthused globally. He is a Sunday-coder, a traditional creative, a strategist and a book-artist.

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:08 am

by Iamwhomiam

Interesting. I mentioned not long ago about a friend who was to present a paper on the possibility of AI self-awareness in Brazil this December, but I got both wrong, as I learned after seeing him again a week ago or so. The conference was held in September, in Chile where he presented his paper, and was well received.

Where's John Carter??

Probably enjoying himself killing time somewhere.

Re: SkyNet Lives

I dunno ... I suspect this is not a real protest and may be more akin to the 2009 SXSW faux protest:

“STOP TARP ARG” – A hilarious ARG within an ARG played out at this year’s SXSW media festival. This “Stop the Troubled Assets Relief Program Alternate Reality Game” featured mock protesters and activists at the SXSW ARG panel discussion “protesting” against the money wasting of an ARG using TARP bail-out money. You’ve got to check out the http://www.TARParg2009forthekids.org website.

Here’s a quote from the SXSW website:

"According to Cain, working on the T.A.R.P. Bailout has been very productive: “I’m happy to work hand-in-hand with the United States government and the Treasury Department in particular to bring the next level of alternate reality gaming to the youth of our great country. This ARG will bring users in the 12 to 18-year-old demographic range the facts about the U.S. banking system in a fun way while enforcing in them the belief that the United States economy is growing stronger with each passing day. Plus we plan to work with a major candy company to give out treats.”

Re: SkyNet Lives

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:55 am

by smoking since 1879

a very interesting peek into these networks, a great link Dr.Evil. ty very much

there's lots of talk of late about the rise of artificial intelligences and what affect they may have, and while the above link and the whole computer vision thing is truly fascinating, i still believe we're a fair way off a robot takeover.

rather, it seems to me that we're already governed and controlled by artificial intelligences, namely the pernicious, all-consuming corporate entities that straddle this little globe.

Re: SkyNet Lives

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:58 am

by tron

there are machines running trades in the markets, algorithms are running the show already.